It's
the year three thousand and twenty and all the corners of space are
engrossed in a duel to the death. Earth has sent all of their men to
fight in their armies, their soldiers aging as early as eighteen.
Although Earth is keeping a high status in war, it's the people's
health that is dwindling. There is a disease genetically spreading
through the human race called Morphic Syndrome. This sickness creates
a physical mutation. Because of this, at birth, children are
inspected to see if they are better built for war. If not, then the
child would have to be disposed of. The world wasn't going right.
Nothing in the universe was going right, but the people still
thrived, and they have a story.

Adams
pulled himself out of the debris. His head throbbed and he put his
hand to his temple. It was bleeding heavily. He wiped the blood on a
shirt of the enemy and pulled himself and his gun out of the pile of
twisted metal. Adams looked around for a moment, squinted up at the
red sun, then to his left. He grinned and pulled himself up.

His
arm ached. Adams inspected it from every angle and grimaced.

"One…two…"
he popped his arm back into his shoulder. "Damn." He ran his
fingers through his short, black hair. Adams scanned the scene for
anyone left. He dug his foot into the ground.

"Badger!"
he called. "They're gone you coward!"

For
a moment, Adams's voice just echoed through the dismal night. Then,
a great spout started forming and a man crawled out.

Adams
rolled his eyes. Badger was an Extreme, which means he's one of the
humans that have a heavy mutation. For example, while Adams has more
of a robust disposition, Badger looks as if he is in poor shape, even
though he isn't. Adams is more resilient to the weather, but at a
sudden climate change Badger ducks under the ground and nestles into
it.

"Where's
Cream?" Badger questioned.

Adams
shrugged. "Sniff him out."

Badger
got down on his hands and feet and pushed his nose into the dirt. He
sneezed and then went on sniffing the ground. Badger started
galloping over to an overturned body.

"I
found him." Badger exclaimed.

Adams
walked over and knelt down to the body. "Cream?" he said. Adams
turned Cream's body over. "Hey Cream, you alive?" Adams slapped
his companion a couple of times.

Cream
coughed and put his hand to his forehead. "Am I dead?"

"No
man." Adams said, pulling his friend up. "But you look like it."

"Ha
ha." Cream muttered, leaning onto his knees.

Once
the three stretched and recapped on what had happened, they started
off to their base of operations two miles from where they were. Adams
led while Badger dug his way under, shielding himself from the
sweltering sun. Cream had turned himself into a pool of black goop
and was sloshing in Adams's shadow.

They
were heading to the Black Camp, the base that had been named after
the founders. Each of their last names spelt out "black." No one
knew exactly what their last names had been, but everyone knew the
story. Five people came onto the planet of Cieplo (the planet that we
find our heroes at the present moment) and those five people had won
the first war on the planet between its inhabitants and the human
race. Adams worshiped the very thought that he shared the same bed as
their leader, the guy whose last name started with "B."

Adams
knocked on the metal door that was concealed under a foxhole.

"Password?"
a straggly voice inquired.

"Siamo
sopravvissuti."
Adams remembered off the top of his head. It was Italian, an extinct
language on Earth.

There
was a series of clicks from behind the door, and Slug, the doorman
let the three in.

"No."
Adams said. He had been wanting to become a Captain ever since he
joined the army. But he never got the credit for his work, so it was
hard to even be noticed in his rank of ninety three.

They
were shoved into the halls full of sweaty men with camouflage armor
and guns slung over their shoulders. Some shirts were hanging from
the drainage pipes that were pinned to the ceiling. The floor was
littered with cigarette butts, envelopes that once contained letters
from home, and crusty red dirt. This was man's country now, and
nothing was going to change that.

Captain
Smith scrunched his eyebrows. "Whose idea was it to leave campus?"

Adams
glanced at Cream. "It…It was my idea sir. I had heard that there
was going to be fight and I took them with me to break it up."
Adams said weakly. Cream was checking on a small village he had come
across. Adams and Badger had tried to stop him, but obviously were
caught in a fight.

"Well
come on then!" Captain Smith hollered, leading Adams and his
comrades to a conference room.

The
rest of the team was sitting in chairs waiting for Adams, Badger, and
Cream to join.

"Now."
Captain Smith said. "Like I was saying…We're getting a new
recruit from the Pessum Ire quadrant-"

"-But
aren't those people vigilantes?" a private called from the back.

"Yes,
but this specific vigilante is the best of the best, trying to save
their planet from disaster. They failed, but we're giving her a
chance to save the whole universe." Captain Smith said.

A
girl walked in, more like trekked in, and stood next to Captain
Smith. Cream's skin shivered.

She
had hair with different color dye in different area, Green, Orange,
Red, Dark Blue, and White. There was but one strip of her original
brown hair above her left shoulder. She had a tattoo on her right
shoulder, two Corporal stripes. She was dressed in a pair of black,
loose pants tied effortlessly with a worn army belt. Her shoes were a
tight, black with thick shoelaces. Her shirt was scraped and the
sleeves were crookedly patched up. Her eyes were so green, that many
men thought that she was part siren.

"This
is V. That's what people call her, so that's what you'll call
her. Have anything to add to that?" Captain Smith asked.

V
looked around. "I don't do dances and I'm not here for the
sweaty men without shirts, so you can stop flexing. Stay out of my
way and you'll live longer than you would if I wasn't here."

Captain
Smith nodded. Are
the directors crazy? She's psycho!

Cream's
eyes widened. "Whoa…"

Badger
nudged Adams in the shoulder. "She looks like your mother."

Adams
shrugged his eyebrows. "My mom didn't have any die in her hair.
And she was more…I don't know nice?"

"Right
and my mother was the sugar queen of the world." Badger said
sarcastically.